What NVIDIA’s GameWorks Does For Game Developers, Its DesignWorks Does For The Tool Makers

Many readers of Techgage are bound to be familiar with NVIDIA’s GameWorks middleware which allows game developers to add cool effects to their games quickly and easily. We’re talking NVIDIA-specific tech like HairWorks, FaceWorks, and of course, PhysX, as well as enhanced technologies, like HBAO+, TXAA, and soft shadows. Up to this point, we’ve seen GameWorks-related tech find itself in a wide-range of games, and given that with the launch of each new NVIDIA GPU, we’re given updates with regards to GameWorks, it’s bound to keep getting better.

Well, as the title suggests, what GameWorks does for game developers, NVIDIA’s new DesignWorks does for those who create the tools those game developers use. At its core, DesignWorks is a collection of software tools and libraries that will allow application developers to take advantage of advanced technologies for implementation with their tools. Related to NVIDIA’s iray renderer, physically based rendering and physically based materials are a huge focus here.

NVIDIA notes that at the moment, a number of tools on the market already support iray, including the high-end CATIA suite from Dassault Systèmes. Of course, it’s also found in Autodesk’s 3ds Max, which we took advantage of in our look at NVIDIA’s Quadro M6000.

NVIDIA iray Sample – Barcelona Loft

The biggest components of DesignWorks includes NVIDIA iray SDK, NVIDIA Material Definition Language (MDL), NVIDIA vMaterials, NVIDIA OptiX, as well as DesignWorks VR – the latter of which could prove very important to those who want the easiest (and perhaps best) solution for creating believable VR content.

At SIGGRAPH, NVIDIA highlighted the effectiveness of its collection of tools with a fun test: it took professional shots of a DeWalt drill, and also whipped one up as a 3D rendering. Which one is real?

Here are some fun shots showing off the photography session. I am not sure who led this project, but it’s clear they wanted to make sure it was done right!

At this point, it’s hard to predict how many companies are going to latch on to DesignWorks, but one thing is certain: NVIDIA is pulling no punches when it comes to alluring both game and application developers alike.